the young girl that her life would not
be in danger, he resolved to make the attempt. Clotelle being very
tall, it was not probable that the jailer would discover any difference
in them.

At this moment, she took from her pocket a bunch of keys and unfastened
the padlock, and freed him from the floor.

"Come, girl, it is time for you to go," said the jailer, as Jerome was
holding the almost fainting girl by the hand.

Being already attired in Clotelle's clothes, the disguised man embraced
the weeping girl, put his handkerchief to his face, and passed out of
the jail, without the keeper's knowing that his prisoner was escaping
in a disguise and under cover of the night.

CHAPTER XX

THE HERO OF MANY ADVENTURES.

Jerome had scarcely passed the prison-gates, ere he reproached himself
for having taken such a step. There seemed to him no hope of escape out
of the State, and what was a few hours or days at most, of life to him,
when, by obtaining it, another had been sacrificed. He was on the eve
of returning, when he thought of the last words uttered by Clotelle.
"Be brave and determined, and you will still be free." The words
sounded like a charm in his ears and he went boldly forward.

Clotelle had provided a suit of men's clothes and had placed them where
her lover could get them, if he should succeed in getting out.

Returning to Mr. Wilson's barn, the fugitive changed his apparel, and
again retraced his steps into the street. To reach the Free States by
travelling by night and lying by during the day, from a State so far
south as Mississippi, no one would think for a moment of attempting to
escape. To remain in the city would be a suicidal step. The deep sound
of the escape of steam from a boat, which was at that moment ascending
the river, broke upon the ears of the slave. "If that boat is going up
the river," said he, "why not I conceal myself on board, and try to
escape?" He went at once to the steamboat landing, where the boat was
just coming in. "Bound for Louisville," said the captain, to one who
was making inquiries. As the passengers were rushing on board, Jerome
followed them, and proceeding to where some of the hands were stowing
away bales of goods, he took hold and aided them.

"Jump down into the hold, there, and help the men," said the mate to
the fugitive, supposing that, like many persons, he was working his way
up the river. Once in the hull among the boxes, the slave concealed
himself.